Abstract
The paper examines the impact of the Greek economic crisis (2009-2018) and the resulted personal income reduction on the change of commuters' travel behavior. The analysis is based on an extensive questionnaire survey, which took place in six Greek cities representing 49.5% of the total urban population of the country. The questionnaire survey was conducted during the year 2017 on a random sample of 2,218 individuals through personal interviews. The aim of the questionnaire survey was to draw useful and practical solutions which would reveal the actual effect of the economic crisis on commuters' travel behavior and their decision to change transport mode for utilitarian or recreational trips, by comparing the years 2008, the year before the beginning of the economic crisis, and the year 2017 when the Greek crisis reached its end. It can be conducted that the personal income reduction has a side effect on the use of private vehicles in favor of the use of public transport and of walking; thus, the crisis has a positive impact on sustainable mobility by changing the way commuters travel in urban areas and favoring more friendly transport modes from both economic and environmental point of view. The results of this survey can be a useful tool for city planners to encourage sustainable transportation so as to increase the quality of life in cities and decrease transport infrastructure investments, energy consumption and environmental degradation.
Highlights
The world economy is changing very fast, so it becomes necessary to follow and adopt transport policies to every change by using the appropriate technological tools and well trained human resources, in order to find the best financial opportunities and business proposals
Greek economic crisis was triggered by the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the global economic downturn and the chronic structural weaknesses of the Greek economy
The reduction of the personal income of the respondents of the questionnaire survey is very close to the official reduction of per capita global domestic product (GDP) given in Figure 1, and this could be a confirmation that the sample selection was unbiased and representative of the whole population
Summary
The world economy is changing very fast, so it becomes necessary to follow and adopt transport policies to every change by using the appropriate technological tools and well trained human resources, in order to find the best financial opportunities and business proposals. People and capital can travel more and more freely worldwide in order to find the best value for money and business opportunities in an era of globalization. This fact has an impact on the global financial system, because no country or enterprise can be fully protected against unexpected situations that suddenly occur. The financial crisis was followed by a global economic downturn. Between the years 2008 and 2017, the per capita global domestic product (GDP) of Greece was reduced by 30.9% (in constant 2019 prices), compared to −0.59% in the EU28 member countries (Eurostat, 2019). The youth unemployment significantly increased after the year 2011, reaching 43.6% in 2017 and 39.9% in 2018 (16.8% in 2017 and 15.2% in 2018 for EU-28) (Eurostat, 2019)
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